West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1887-07-21

4 blVot JOkcs buJ old ago rs really no Joke
ct all For tho last forty years YOU have
been dreading that which ought 10 la y
peing an eXhilaration. You say you must
fear the struggle at the moment the soul
anu body part. But millions have en-
dured that moment and why not we as
welf They got through with IL, and so
B can we. Besides this. all medical men
agree in saying that there is probably no
struggle at all at tho last momcnt-not so
much pain as the prick of pin, the seeming
signs OF distress being altogether Involuntary
But you say: ut Is the uncertainty OF tho
tuture" Now, child of God, do not play the
nhdel. After God has filed the Bible tin it
can hold no more with the stories of the good
taintiea.
But you say: al cannot bear to think of
parting trOm friends here III Won are old
you have more friends i'm heaven than
here. just take the census Take some
large sheet of paper and begin 20 record
the names OF those who have emigrated
TO the other shore; the companions of your
school days, your early business aSsoci-
ates, tho friends OF mid life and those who
more recently went away. Can il DO that
they have been gone 50 long you do not
care any more about them and you do not
want their society," Oh, no! There have
been days when you have felt that Won
could not endure IL another moment away
from their blessed companionship They
nave gone. You say you would not like
70 bring them back to this world of
trouble, even IL you had the power 1t
would not do TO trust you. God would
not give you resurrection power. Before
Tomorrow morning you would be rat
thing at the gates of tho cemetery, CRYING
20 the departed: "Come back TO tho cradle
whore you slept Come back TO the hall
where you used TO play Come back to
the table where You used 90 sit ~ and there
would be n great burglary i'm heaven. No
MOI God viii not trust you with resurrection
power, but he compromises the matter and
says: "a" You cannot bring them where you
ma. -
Were they beautiful here, they are more
beautiful there
Besides that, it is more healthy there for
you than here, aged man; better climate
there than these hot summers and cold
winters and late springs: better hearing
better eye-sight; more tonic i'm the air /;
more perfume in the bloom: more sweet
ness IN the song. Do you not feel aged
man, sometimes, rs though you would like to
get your arm and foot free, Do YOU not
feel as though you would like TO throw away
SpectacleS and canes and crutchesl Would
you not like TO feel the spring and elias
LcI1y , ana mrth OF an eternal boy
hoodf When the point at which you start
from tins worlds old age, and the point to
Whlch you go is eternal jUvenescence aged
man, clap your hands at the anticipation,
and say, in perfect rapture of soul: 1.-The
time OF my departure is at hand"
remark, again, all those ought to feel
this Joy of the text who have a holy Curl
oSlty to know what is beyond this earthly
about III Paul, / suppose had the most
satisfactory view of heaven and he saws:
1t doth not yet appear what we shall be-
~ Is IKE looking through n broken tele-
scope: Now we see through n glass
darklyn Can you tell me ANYTHING about
that heavenly place You ask me n
thousand questions about it that L cannot
answer; l ask you thousand questions
about 1t that you cannot answer. And do
you wonder that Paul was so glad when
martyrdom gave him chance TO 90 over
and make discoveries in that blessed
countryi
Ihope some day, by the grace OF GOO. to 90
over and see for myself; but not now No
well man, no proSpcred man, l think. wants
10 so now But the time will come / think
when l shall go over. want to see
what they do there, and l want to see
how they do it. do not want to be look
ing through tho gates ajar forever. /
want them to swing open. There are
lV'VO things want explained-about you,
OF this world, about God, about
everything We start in plain
path of what we know, and i'm n
minute come up against a high wall of
looks over there. Somebody tells me il is
Ike paved city-paved with GOLD: and
another man tells me it is like a fountain
ana 1T IS like tree, and it is like n tri
umphal procession, and the next man I
meet tells me it is all figurative | really
want 20 know, after the body Is resur.
rected, what they wear and what they
cut; and have an Unreasonable curiosity
TO know what 1t Is, and how il is and
where it Is. Columbus rislled his life To
ma this continent, and shall we shudder
TO 80 out on voyage Of discovery which
snail reveal vaster and more different
life TO find a passage between
lcebcrgS, and shall we dread TO find n mas
SAGE TO eternal summeri Men in Swift
zerland travel up the heights of the Mat
wit qIIf fg,rV- i
rockets aud ropes, and getting half way
up stumble and fall down in a terrible
massacre They just want to saw tbev
had been on the tops of those high peaks
of the eternal hills, which start n tbou-
sand miles beyond where stop the highest
peaks OF the Alps, and when i'm that as
cent there IS no perilf a man doomed TO
DIE stepped ON the sCaiTold aud said i'm iov.
Now, in ten minutes / will know tho
great secret One minute after the vital
functions ceased the little child that died last
4ght nm Montague street knew more than
Jonathan Edwards, or ST. Paul him
self, before he died Friends the exit from
TINS world, or death, If you please 10 call
70. TO the Christian Is glorious cxpla-
nation IL Is demonstration. 10 is iilu-
mination. It is sunburst 10 IS the opening
Of all the windows Tt is shutting 10
the catechism OF doubt and the unroilnu
or all the scrolls of positive and a.
curato information Instead Of stand
ing at the foot of the ladder and looking
up, IT IS standing at tho top OF ths
ladder and looking down 10 is the last
mystery taken out OF botany. and geology.
and astronomy, and theology. OH will it
not he grand 10 have ali questions au-
sweredf The perpatullly recurring inter-
rOgaton point changed for the mark ~
exclamation. An riddles solved Who
viii fear to go ont on that discovery when alI
the questions are ~ be- decided which we have
been discussing all our lives. Who shall not
clap bis hands in the aut cipltou of that
blessed country itit De no hotter than through
holy curiosity. crying "The time of my de-
partIre Is athand0
remark again, we ought % have the Joy Of
the text. because. leaving ths world ,we move
into the best society OF the universe You see
q great crowd of people in some street. and
you say; wv no is passing there, What Gau.
eral what Prince is going up tuerc" Wei.
. see great thronE BOO heaven. T say: "Who
. is the focus of all that aimira i0nf WHO
is the centre of chat glitterug company"
i5 Jesus, the champion of au worlds. The
iaVorte OF aIl agas DO you know what
/ is the first question Che soul viii ask wleu
it comes through the gate of hs1geut ]
thinf the first question viii be- Whore
l Jesus, the Saviour tlat pard0ue1 my s.u.
tHat Carried my sorrows thlt Igu.it my
I1t.'s Jnat won iuy si.tyrie % radiant